It landed on the chest of one of my summer day campers in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri.

There was quite a stir among the kiddies and I quickly grabbed it up and snapped a gazillion pictures.

Me holding a goose feather by an artificial lake. Not as exciting, but it kind of fits the theme. LOL

Holding a fledgling male Cardinal. I talk about how I found him and keeping my eyes open.

Ruby Throated Humming Bird.

I caught this fellow on the patio and with much patience and persistence I cupped him. They are so very light in weight. I was amazed. I do what I always do - take a gazillion pictures! I even feed it some sugar water and could see its very small tongue flit out very quickly. I definitely feel like I came in contact with an angel with this experience, so surreal.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

DNLee

DNLee is a biologist and she studies animal behavior, mammalogy, and ecology . She uses social media, informal experiential science experiences, and draws from hip hop culture to share science with general audiences, particularly under-served groups.

Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www.springernature.com/us). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.